Tapatalk and ForumRunner users: A vulnerability in Vbulletin allowed hackers to insert redirect links to some crappy filemanager software. We have disabled plugins and custom bb tags temporarily just to be safe until Vbulletin releases a fix. Please bookmark forum.destructoid.com instead of using google's links to avoid old cached pages that might redirect you.

Let's play Werewolf on the forums!

So, anybody who listens to the Zero Cool podcast (I forgive you if you don't) knows that I've gotten into board gaming more and more, with this past year having me really going off the deep end. I've been spending a lot of time at BoardGameGeek, which is a fine website, though not as fine as this one. One of the things I do there is participate in play-by-forum games; essentially, they are asynchronous online games, with a moderator handling all of the board aspects.

I want to do that with Dtoiders! But there are a few problems. I don't have a lot of time to produce awesome board images like some people do for games of Battlestar Galactica. More importantly, though, very few people have the games I have, so if I tried to get a game going of Gears of War: the Board Game, I doubt I'd get any players.

Both of those problems are solved with game choice. We'll play Werewolf! Some people know the game as Mafia. It has no board to keep track of, and you can play it without owning any version of the game. One extra benefit of this is that it can seat a huge number of players. For the sake of time, I'm thinking of capping this first game at 15 or 20 players, to see how it flows. If you don't know how to play, don't worry. That's what the next few paragraphs are for.

Werewolf is a game of teams, though the teams aren't explicitly known by everybody. A group of werewolves are savaging a town, and the townspeople need to put a stop to it. The game is played in phases, with a night phase and a day phase. During the night phase, the werewolves choose one villager to rend and devour. This choice is made secretly (PM'd to me). During the day phase, all villagers (werewolves included) discuss what happened, accuse each other of lycanthropy, and eventually call for an execution. If a majority vote is obtained, the player in question is hung and is out of the game. Discussion and voting is done publicly (posted to the forum).The team of werewolves wins if there are ever an equal number of werewolf villagers as there are regular villagers. The team of villagers wins if they successfully root out and execute all of the werewolves.

There are a few special roles that can help the villager team. Roles that will be randomly (and secretly) distributed are the Seer and the Bodyguard. The Seer gets to choose one other player each night to know about. He will be secretly given the information that the chosen player is either a villager or a werewolf. He can make public accusation during the next daytime phase, but it paints him as a target for any surviving werewolves. The Bodyguard can choose one player each night to be protected from a werewolf attack. If the werewolves and the Bodyguard choose the same player, it will be made public that an attack occurred, but that there were no casualties. Who was attacked will not be made public by me, but again, the Bodyguard (or the Werewolves) can make that information public if they so choose.

And that's about it! Of course, there are some play-by-forum-specific rules that I ought to throw in here.
1. Only sign up if you plan on playing. I expect players to check in at least once a day (perhaps less on weekends), and ideally multiple times throughout the day.
2. Keep in mind that with twenty players, this could take a VERY long time. I have nothing to base this estimate off of, but I would not be surprised to see this game last 2-3 months.
3. Make sure that all secret information is handled by PM to me and me only, and any other communication between players occurs publicly in this thread.
4. You may be eliminated from the game after only a single turn (either from a werewolf mauling or from a villager execution). Dead players are encouraged to continue following the game, though they may not share any information they had before they were killed.
5. I'm sure there's something else I'll think of that I haven't considered yet that I'll have to put here.

I'm curious, I'll play. One question though, how do the werewolves decide who to eat if they have to do it in secret? Are they all just PM'ing each other like crazy or is there some special organization to this that I'm missing?

I'm curious, I'll play. One question though, how do the werewolves decide who to eat if they have to do it in secret? Are they all just PM'ing each other like crazy or is there some special organization to this that I'm missing?

I've been thinking about it and trying to figure out the best way to do it, and I think it might be that I'll let each werewolf know who his teammates are, and allow PMs between them. PMs among normal villagers or between villagers and werewolves would still be forbidden, on the honor system.

All right, we've got what I wanted as the bare minimum signed up. I will delay starting the game for a couple of reasons. One, Aerox wants special treatment and requests that we don't start until after he's done covering Blizzcon (such a diva). Two, it gives us more time to recruit some more players.

The game will officially begin next week. Keep an eye on your PM inboxes for your role. If you don't check these forums every day, send me a PM with your Gtalk/email so I can let you know if we're waiting on you.

But I like Aerox, even with his diva-like tendencies. Did you know he insists on only eating the green skittles when he covers dtoid events because he thinks it gives him special powers. Totally true story.